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alijc
@alijc@sunny.garden
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Joined September 24, 2024
For 'cozy', I went back to Owls in Towels, cause what could be cozier than an owl burrito?
Reference photo: https://owlsintowels.org/ambassador-owl-pedicure/
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This week's prompt is 'calm'. Looking up synonyms for that, I settled on 'pacific'. That gave me two choices - the Pacific screech owl and the Pacific pygmy owl. I decided to go with the former, cause it's got cute ears. And I like the juxtaposition between 'pacific' and 'screech'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_screech_owl
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Earth
Burrowing owl
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Toot
For this one I had to go back to the saw-whet owl, cause that's the one that's notorious for tooting. It's this call that gave it its name, cause it sounds like a saw being sharpened on a whet-stone.
Reference photo: https://a-z-animals.com/blog/sounds-owls-make-and-what-each-means-its-not-just-hoot/#h-2-toot
Reference toot: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Saw-whet_Owl/sounds
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Gray
What else could I possibly draw, other than a great grey owl?
Arguably the largest owl, albeit not the heaviest one.
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Up to Washington Park again, this time with a different group.
Went big this time.
Fleet Week in the Rose Festival
This is a Canadian patrol boat, designed for the Arctic.
#pdx #sketch #sketching #pleinair
Rebuild
For this one I learned about imping, attaching donor feathers to the base of the shafts of a living bird, to get it flying again without having to wait for next year's feathers to come in. The process was developed for hunting falcons, but is now also used to rehabilitate wild birds.
Reference photo: https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/7b5d1ca7cc8eacee8a26de7a0028420e
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Train
I've actually met this owl. In the before times, when I used to lead young people on hikes up through Forest Park, we once got to a clearing near the Audubon Society while they were exercising their resident birds.
This one is Julio. She was rescued when the tree that held her nest was cut down, but was then hand-raised for a pet. By the time she reached the Audubon Society she was completely socialized to humans and too old to be retrained to live in the wild. So now she lives there and teaches humans about owls.
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Heavy
While the Great gray owl is the longest owl, the Blakiston's fish owl, at up to 4.6 kg, is the heaviest. Person for reference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blakiston%27s_fish_owl
Reference photo: https://newsroom.wcs.org/dnnimagehandler.ashx?mode=file&file=/Portals/164/FishOwl_JSlaght%20(1).JPG&w=785&h=500&resizemode=crop
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Paradise, AKA Eden
This one's a stretch.
According to Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife, living with him in Eden, until she chucked him and ran off. Her name means either 'she-devil' or 'night bird', and she was depicted as flanked by owls. She's thought to have been the inspiration for Athena, and then Minerva, so it's fitting that a sub-species of Athena's owl has been named for her.
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Up to Washington Park, in a riot of roses.
'Boost'
I took the liberty of translating 'boost' to 'steal'.
Barred owls started moving into the Pacific Northwest about 20 years ago. They're closely related to Spotted owls, but much bolder.
There have been plenty of reports of them stealing hats. Mostly from trail runners, but sometimes from people walking down the street.
Purported reasons for this behavior:
1) They're stealing them for nesting material
2) They're confusing them with small mammals and catching them to eat
3) They see the people as threats and are trying to chase them away from their nests
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Today's sketchcrawl was to Lower Albina, where we haven't gone for a while. A lot of people found a spot where they could see the Fremont Bridge, and did that. But I ended up among the equipment depots under the bridge's ramps, to do them, soaring overhead.
Then down the hill a bit, where I saw a train idling, and tried to do that. Only it started moving before I'd gotten more than an outline done. Also, I discovered that I'd forgotten to put a black pencil in my pack. So the shadows were... interesting.
#pdx #sketchcrawl #sketch #sketching #urbansketchers #USK
Back up to Washington Park, for one final day of sketching - this time with a nature journaling group.
I cheated on this one.
The kakapo, AKA the owl-parrot, is a large nocturnal bird that looks like an owl, with forward-facing eyes and a dished face. But it's not an owl, or even a raptor. It's a flightless parrot. It is very green though.
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Not exactly 'urban' sketching.
Walked through downtown Portland yesterday, visiting all the artsy happenings, and trying out a limited palette of colored pencils. (I did the street painting from the balcony of the art museum, thinking that I'd get a good view of it there. But the shadows were deep and obscured most of it.)
Playing with colored pencils. And ambitiously trying to portray glass and water with a rgb palette.